The CaberNet Electronic Newsletter
Edited by: Elaine
Seery, University of Newcastle
CaberNet is an Information
Society Technologies Programme, Thematic Network, Network of
Excellence in Distributed and Dependable Computing Systems (IST-2000-25088).The
mission of CaberNet is to co-ordinate top-ranking European research
in distributed and dependable systems, to make that research
accessible to governments and industries and to further the
quality of education concerning such systems. CaberNet addresses
all aspects of the design of networked computer systems. These
systems can range from embedded systems used to control an aircraft
in flight to globe-spanning applications searching for information
on the World-Wide Web (WWW).
CaberNews is
the electronic newsletter of CaberNet providing up-to-date information
on CaberNet activities and related news. CaberNews is freely
distributed by email and on the WWW. Contact
Elaine Seery to be added to the CaberNews email distribution
list or provide input to the newsletter.
In this issue:
- Short Term Visits Approved
- Calendar of CaberNet-related events
- CaberNet related jobs and studentships
- Spotlight on CaberNet members: ELECTA, K.U.Leuven
Short Term Visits Approved
Trip Report
Funding was agreed for Vincent Nicomette (LAAS) to travel
to Noordwijk, the Netherlands to participate in a meeting
with the European Space Agency and other prospective partners
in view of preparing an FP6 proposal on the topic of the engineering
of critical systems using open source software. A
report of that visit is available (91K pdf).
Framework 6 Activities
There were several requests for funding to attend meetings
in support of Framework 6 activiites.
Three people from Newcastle, Prof. Luca Simoncini from Pisa,
and Michel Gien from Jaluna were funded to attend a FP6 planning
meeting in Toulouse, and a further meeting in Paris, to discuss
two FP6 projects - DeFINE and DeSIRE. Paulo Verissimo and
Nuno Ferreira Neves (Lisboa), four representatives from Pisa
(Luca Simoncini, Andrea Bondavalli, Antonia Bertolino and
Felicita Di Giandomenico or Giorgio Faconti) and two from
Jaluna (Michel Gien and Francois Armand) were also funded
to attend the Paris meeting. A trip
report from the Toulouse meeting, from Prof Simoncini
is available (39K MS Word).
Peter Ryan (Newcastle) was funded to visit to Brussels for
a meeting to move forward a possible NoE in security (ENORICS).
Dr. P.J.M. Havinga and Gerard Smit (University of Twente,
Department of Computing Science) were funded to attend a meeting
in Cambridge, UK. The meeting was to prepare an Integrated
Project with KA6. The project is planned to be submitted within
the IST-FET proactive research initiative "The Disappearing
Computer 2", open in the IST-FP6 1st Call for Proposals.
Raymond Veldhuis (Twente) was funded to attend a meeting
at ENST (Paris) to prepare the FP6 NoE BioSecure, on biometric
identification and verification. Raymond Veldhuis will coordinate
the workpackage on fingerprint recognition.
Pieter Hartel (Twente) was funded to attend a meeting in
Paris to discuss the drafting on the IP on smart cards. This
is a follow up to both the RESET and AMSD roadmapping activities.
Other Visits Approved
The DIES group of the University of Twente was allocated
funding for a trip of one of its PhD students to the University
of Rome "La Sapienza". The student, Y.W. Law, is
working in the field of wireless sensor networks, with a special
focus on security. Security is such a field that best capitalizes
on collaboration. It is not uncommon for one researcher to
have invented a seemingly unbreakable scheme, be it ciphers
or security protocols, only to be broken by another researcher
using a method that has easily been overlooked. The mission
of this student is to absorb as much expertise as possible
from this collaborative effort. The student is expected to
be concentrating on multicast keying in the context of wireless
sensor networks, and also if time permits, security support
for directed diffusion. For this visit, preliminary arrangements
have been made and domain knowledge has been exchanged.
The topic of research is closely related to ambient intelligence,
which is one of the key topics within the 6th EU framework.
Since the specific topic of research is an emerging area of
interest that does not yet belong to mainstream research,
only a handful of institutions at the European level have
considerable expertise in the area and/or have made significant
contributions to the field in recent years. One of those institutions
is the University of Rome, and in particular the group lead
by Prof. Luigi V. Mancini.
The objective of the visit was 1) to exchange current research
and ideas, 2) establish cooperation by working on a general
framework and simulation environment, and 3) explore potential
collaboration within the 6th EU framework.
Calendar of CaberNet-related events
The archives
of current CaberNet related events can be found here.
CaberNet-related jobs
The archives
of current CaberNet related jobs can be found here.
Spotlight on CaberNet members: ELECTA, K.U.Leuven
ELECTA is a research division of the Electrical Engineering
department (ESAT) of Belgium’s largest university K.U.Leuven.
ELECTA stands for Electrical Energy and CompuTer Architecture
and was created since 1 Jan 2002 out of the research groups
ELEN (Electrical Energy) and ACCA
(Automatic Control and Computer Architecture).
ELECTA’s research aims at improving the dependability
of computer-based systems and distributed embedded applications
through the use of fault tolerance. As such their availability,
integrity, reliability, safety and maintainability are increased
by applying software, hardware, information and/or time redundancy.
As of 1 Jan 2002, 7 people (2 postdoctoral researchers, 4
doctoral researchers, 1 administrative person) work in this
field.
Research focuses on the design and assessment of software-implemented
fault tolerance solutions for embedded systems on distributed
platforms. The design of software-implemented fault tolerance
solutions builds on adaptable modules that can be tailored
for the target applications to support user-specific recovery
strategies. To this aim, a methodology, the so-called framework
approach, is being developed. As part of this methodology,
the resulting solutions are assessed to check if they meet
at the same time the dependability, the real-time, and the
cost constraints. For this, the improvements in availability,
safety, etc. and the associated overheads are quantified.
Conceptual verification and validation via software fault
injection allow completing the assessment. The underlying
steps consist of 1) establishing an explicit fault and failure
model, 2) analysing the dependability requirements quantitatively,
3) synthesising the fault tolerance strategy, 4) instantiating
the framework and 5) evaluating the integrated approach. Special
attention is paid to the vulnerabilities due to the interdependencies
between three critical infrastructures: information, communication
and energy infrastructure.
This framework approach has been developed to reduce the
amount of programmers’ effort needed for application
coding to increase the dependability of the application. It
provides modular software libraries to integrate fault tolerance
mechanisms in the application (e.g. voting, consistency checks,
checkpoint initiation, etc.); this is complemented with a
backbone for information retrieval and co-ordination of recovery
actions. A high level language (ARIEL) is used to specify
the fault tolerance actions to be taken when an error is detected.
As such, the functional behaviour of the application is separated
from the non-functional behaviour (the reaction to faults
and errors). This results in a high maintainability, also
via the adaptability of the framework to the needs of the
applications.
This framework approach is validated in industrial applications
especially in the field of embedded systems where both fault
tolerance and parallel computing is required. Some recent
project example applications include an autonomous guided
vehicle, a transaction system for charging and billing applications
in telecom, an image processing application in a postal automation
system, a remotely-controlled electricity substation, etc.
This provides the necessary feedback for the framework design
and assessment.
- Dissemination of this research is performed via three channels.
Publications in journals and presentations on international
conferences (see below) allow informing research communities
and getting feedback from them.
- Dissemination to students is performed through the courses
B-KUL-HK03 ‘Advanced control theory and fault-tolerant
computer’ and B-KUL-H373 ‘Control and safety in digital
systems’ and via the leading and supervision of Master-level
and Ph.D.-level dissertations.
- Dissemination to companies and industry goes via collaboration,
counseling or tailored courses, such as several modules in the
‘Interuniversity course on Information Technology’.
Key Personnel
Geert Deconinck
Education
- Jul 1991: Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, specialisation
Electronics, Control Theory, K.U.Leuven, Belgium, maxima cum
laude.
- Dec 1996: Ph.D. in Applied Sciences, K.U.Leuven, Belgium,
summa cum laude.
- Jan 2001: Certified Reliability Engineer (ASQ)
Current positions
- Visiting professor (bijzonder gastdocent), K.U.Leuven.
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Vlaanderen. Memberships
- Member of KVIV, Koninklijke Vlaamse Ingenieursvereniging (Royal
Flemish Engineering Society): 1991-present.
- Senior Member of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers): 2000-present (member since 1988). Member of IEEE
Reliability Society, Computer Society, Power Society.
Relevant background
- Author or co-author of approx. 70 reviewed publications in
journals (16) and international conference proceedings (56)
in the research field of dependability, fault tolerance and
distributed embedded systems.
- Scientific responsible for several European, Belgian and Flemish
projects, e.g. ESPRIT 21012 EFTOS: Embedded Fault-tolerant Supercomputing,
ESPRIT 28620 TIRAN: Tailorable fault tolerance framework for
embedded applications, GOA/2001/04 Assessment of Power Quality
in Electrical Energy Systems: Basic Study and Possible Solutions,
IST-2000-25434 DepAuDE Dependability for embedded automation
systems in dynamic environments with intra-site and inter-site
dependability aspects, …
- Research leader, assessor or jury member of +15 PhD students.
- Member of National Organising Committee, 7th IFAC Symp. on
Computer Aided Control Systems Design (CACSD’97), Gent,
Belgium, 28-30 Apr 1997.
- Scientific coordinator and organiser, ATHENS (Advanced Technology
Higher Education Network/SOCRATES) Dependable Systems. One-week
course, K.U.Leuven. Nov 1999 and Nov 2000.
- 2001: co-organiser: Facing Vulnerabilities of Interdependent
Infrastructures - a European Conference on partnership in research
and development , Milan, 21 Nov 2001.
- Member of International Program Committee, IASTED Int. Conf.
on Applied Informatics, 1997-2000. Int. Conf. Engineering of
Modern Electric Systems 2001.
- Reviewer of several European and national research projects
and project proposals (IST, INTAS, IWT).
- Peer-reviewer of +50 scientific papers.
Vincenzo De Florio
Vincenzo De Florio acquired his Laurea degree in Computer Science
at the University of Bari, Italy (October 1987) and his doctoral
degree in Applied Sciences at the University of Leuven, Belgium
(October 2000). Since November 2000 he is post -doctoral researcher
at the University of Leuven. His previous positions include: full
time researcher with the School for Advanced Studies in Industrial
and Applied Mathematics, Tecnopolis CSATA research centre, Valenzano,
Italy (July 1990-August 1996) and assistant researcher with the
Dept. of Electrical Engineering -- ESAT.
De Florio is currently teaching the course HB49 ("Advanced
Computer Architectures") in the framework of the post-graduate
Master Programme in Artificial Intelligence. Moreover, he teaches
"Advanced C Language Programming" in the framework of
the SOCRATES/ATHENS programme as well as in the course HJ82 ("Design
Seminars"). De Florio has been involved in a series of ESPRIT
projects on dependable computing and is currently local responsible
for the IST project DepAuDE, which focuses on dependability of
real-time distributed systems with intra-site and inter-site communication
aspects. He is author or co-author of more than 30 research papers
published in the proceedings of international conferences and
workshops in the fields of dependable and parallel computing and
in international journals in the fields of complex systems and
dependability. His interests include software fault tolerance,
error recovery support at the application-level, computational
combinatorics, complex systems, computer architectures.
Recent publications
Journal articles
- G. Deconinck, V. De Florio, T. Varvarigou, E. Verentziotis,
“The EFTOS approach to dependability in embedded supercomputing”,
accepted for IEEE Trans Reliability (TR99-134, scheduled to
appear in Mar. 2002). SCI-impactfactor (2000) 0.358.
- G. Deconinck, V. De Florio, O. Botti, “Software-Implemented
Fault Tolerance and Separate Recovery Strategies Enhance Maintainability”,
accepted for IEEE Trans Reliability (TR-2001- 054). SCI-impactfactor
(2000) 0.358.
- V. De Florio, G. Deconinck, R. Lauwereins, “Software
Tool Combining Fault Masking with User-Defined Recovery Strategies”,
IEE Proc. – Software, Special issue on Dependable Computing
Systems (IEE, London, UK), Vol. 145, No. 6, Dec. 1998, pp. 203-211.
- G. Efthivoulidis, E. Verentziotis, A. Meliones, T. Varvarigou,
A. Kontizas, G. Deconinck, V. De Florio, “Fault Tolerant
Communication in Embedded Supercomputing”, IEEE Micro,
Special issue on Fault Tolerance (IEEE Comp. Soc. Press), Vol.
18, No. 5, Sep.-Oct. 1998. SCI-impactfactor 0.992.
- G. Deconinck, T. Varvarigou, O. Botti, V. De Florio, A. Kontizas,
M. Truyens, W. Rosseel, R. Lauwereins, F. Cassinari, S. Graeber,
U. Knaak, “Industrial Embedded HPC Applications”,
Int. Journal Supercomputer (ASFRA BV, Edam, The Netherlands)
69 (Vol. XIII, No. 3/4), 1997, pp. 23-44. SCI-impactfactor 0.270.
Conference papers
- G. Deconinck, V. De Florio, G. Dondossola, H. Kuefner, G.
Mazzini, S. Calella, S. Donatelli, “Distributed embedded
automation systems: dynamic environments and dependability”,
Supplement of the Int. Conf. on Dependable Systems and Networks
(DSN-2001 - Special Track: European Dependability Initiative),
Göteborg, Sweden, Jul. 1-4 2001, pp. D16-D19.
- G. Deconinck, V. De Florio, O. Botti, “Separating Recovery
Strategies from Application Functionality: Experiences with
a Framework Approach”, Proc. 2001 Ann. Reliability &
Maintainability Symp. (RAMS2001) (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ), Philadelphia,
PA, USA, Jan. 22- 25, 2001, pp. 246-251.
- O. Botti, V. De Florio, G. Deconinck, R. Lauwereins, F. Cassinari,
S. Donatelli, A. Bobbio, A. Klein, H. Kufner, E. Thurner, E.
Verhulst, “The TIRAN Approach to Reusing Software Implemented
Fault Tolerance”, Proc. 8th Euromicro Workshop on Parallel
and Distributed Processing (PDP2000) (IEEE Comp. Soc. Press,
Los Alamitos, CA), Rhodes, Greece, Jan. 19-21, 2000, pp. 325-332.
- G. Deconinck, V. De Florio, R. Lauwereins, R. Belmans, “A
Software Library, a Control Backbone and User-Specified Recovery
Strategies to Enhance the Dependability of Embedded Systems”,
Proc. 25th EUROMICRO Conf. (EuroMicro’99) (IEEE Comp. Soc.
Press, Los Alamitos, CA), Workshop on Dependable Computing Systems,
Milan, Italy, Sep. 8-10, 1999, Vol. II, pp. 98-104.
- G. Deconinck, O. Botti, F. Cassinari, V. De Florio, R. Lauwereins,
“Stable Memory in Substation Automation: a Case Study”,
Digest of Papers 28th Annual Int. Symp. on Fault- Tolerant Computing
(FTCS-28) (IEEE Comp. Soc. Press, Los Alamitos, CA), Munich,
Germany, Jun. 23-25, 1998. pp.452-457.
Recent projects
- 1996-1998: EFTOS project (ESPRIT 21012) Embedded Fault-tolerant
Supercomputing
- 1996-1998: COF 96/11: I/O fault tolerance for embedded supercomputing
- 1997-2000: NFWO: Design, specification and prototyping of
fault-tolerant real-time applications for digital signal processing
on heterogeneous, reusable platforms
- 1998-2000: TIRAN project (ESPRIT 28620): Tailorable fault
tolerance framework for embedded applications
- 1999: Investigation of fault tolerance of a transaction processing
system TAPS/NODE
- 1999-2001: SAFESYS project (HOBUfonds HOBU-fonds project 990058:
Functional safety for electronic systems: Implementation of
the norm IEC-61508)
- 2000-2003: FWO-Vlaanderen: Elaboration of a conceptual framework
for the development and evaluation of fault-tolerant real-time
systems
- 2001-2005: GOA/2001/04: Assessment of Power Quality in Electrical
Energy Systems: Basic Study and Possible Solutions
- 2001-2002: DepAuDE project (FP5 IST-2000-25434) Dependability
for embedded automation systems in dynamic environments with
intra-site and inter-site dependability aspects
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